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GUNS, SPATS AND GANGSTERS July 13-16 In 1934, when John Dillinger's face appeared in movie newsreels, the audience cheered and clapped. When Detective magazine polled theatre owners, they reported that J Edgar Hoover's “Public Enemy No 1” drew more applause than President Roosevelt and Charles Lindbergh, the two officially sanctioned heroes of the hour.

In honour of Michael Mann's ambitious new Dillinger movie Public Enemies, this short season shines a light on the enduring appeal of the gangster: perennial underdog, American dreamer and tragic hero. It includes one of the genre's definitive classics, James Cagney in The Public Enemy (1931); Clark Gable in the last movie John Dillinger ever saw, Manhattan Melodrama (1934); and three very different retrospective takes on the crime wave of the early 1930s, Bonnie and Clyde (1967); Bloody Mama (1970), and John Milius's fine biopic, Dillinger (1973).

THE PUBLIC ENEMY
Mon July 13 & Weds July 15 // 6:30 pm

Director William A Wellman // USA 1931 // 84 min // 35mm // Cast: James Cagney, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell, Jean Harlow, Mae Clark

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Jimmy Cagney made his name in this seminal Warner Bros gangster movie. He's Tom Powers, a charismatic slum kid who takes a wrong turn and pour his drive and ambition into racketeering. The character was loosely based on Hymie Weiss, an enemy and eventually a victim of Al Capone. See it for Cagney, crackling with energy, a human dynamo with a staccato speech pattern and a grin as quick as his fist...BUY TICKETS

DILLINGER
Mon July 13 // 8:10 pm & Thurs July 16 // 6:30 pm

Director John Milius // USA 1973 // 107 min // DVD // Cast: Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Michelle Phillips, Cloris Leachman, Harry Dean Stanton, Richard Dreyfuss

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John Dillinger was an authentic American folk hero long before he looked like Johnny Depp. History nut (and Apocalypse Now screenwriter) John Milius made his directorial debut under the auspices of Roger Corman's AIP studio, still profiting from the gangster revival inspired by Bonnie and Clyde (dismissed as two-bit hoodlums here). Give or take the characterization of Ben Johnson as Melvin Purvis this is fairly accurate version of events, and Warren Oates could pass for the premier public enemy number one in a lineup. Look for Richard Dreyfuss as “Baby Face” Nelson...BUY TICKETS

BONNIE AND CLYDE
Tues July 14 // 6.30 pm
& Thurs July 16 // 8.30 pm

Director Arthur Penn // USA 1967 // 111 min // 35mm // Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Michael J Pollard

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“They're Young. They're In Love. And They Kill People.” Like a smile dying, Arthur Penn's new wave gangster rhapsody gets you high on the thrills and spills of the chase, then hits you with the consequences right between the eyes. The violence was a turning point for the genre, but so too the romantic take on the attractive, non-conformist outlaws. This is the stuff that counter-cultural myths are made of...BUY TICKETS

BLOODY MAMA
Tues July 14 // 8:30 PM

Director Roger Corman // USA 1970 // 90 min // DVD // Cast: Shelley Winters, Pat Hingle, Don Stroud, Diane Varsi, Bruce Dern, Robert De Niro

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In what seems like a calculated riposte to Penn's romanticism, sleaze-meister Roger Corman lets loose here. Steeped in Freudian motifs and throwing history out the window, the movie makes no bones about its anti-social anti-heroes. The Barker clan comprises a sadist, a homosexual, a lady-killer, and a junkie (De Niro sniffing glue). Each takes his turn in Ma's bed, proving that “the family that slays together, stays together”...BUY TICKETS

MANHATTAN MELODRAMA
Weds July 15 // 8:10 PM

Directors: WS Van Dyke & George Cukor // USA 1934 // 90 min // DVD // Cast: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy

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Orphans Blackie (Gable) and Jim (Powell) are lifelong friends, but one grows up to be a racketeer, and the other becomes District Attorney. Myrna Loy is the dame who comes between them. This irresistible Oscar-winning hokum was the last film movie-fan John Dillinger ever saw: he was gunned down outside the theatre...BUY TICKETS

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